DUS. Review on My Ten Favorite Web Sites

At the outset, let me just remind readers that this is just a list of my favorite websites. No claim what-so-ever is being made that these are the best sites in their categories. Some of them are extremely slow and maybe very bad in your opinion. But then they are on this list as they are my favorites. I like them for various reasons but I also feel that I they can get better. In this review I have tried to mention how I got to the site and why I stayed with it. Also I have tried to mention what I don’t like about the site in question, where ever necessary. Kindly read through in the appropriate spirit.

Google.com: I was a keen user of askjeeves.com until a student of mine referred me to the google search site. Jeeves often came up with crazy search results, something that I have never seen at google. Besides google is the fastest site under any category that I have visited. The sheer volume of results it produces at such fast rates is amazing. It is also a site that has helped my find some of the sites that I have listed below. The search can be modified to view just images of your “key word” which is a cool feature. Also the advance search feature is mind boggling, I can also interact with the search engine (can you believe it) in my mother tongue Malayalam too!!! Though I don’t use that feature.

Babycenter.com: Right from the time my wife and I knew that we were going to have a child; I am a member of this site. I found it accidentally using a search feature on google.com. But then its features and content was so interesting that I have been with this site for almost two years now. The member forums and expert write ups are excellent. There is a lot of interesting articles about pregnancy and child care. Also for the types who don’t mind shopping on the net there are several irresistible offers relating to baby and kids stuff. Their weekly updates on how your child is progressing through the pregnancy and after it is simply superb and gets delivered in your mailbox if you wish to have it. Only negative that I have seen though is that the site is more oriented towards Americans, as an Indian certain charts and offers are not applicable to me…. But I am not complaining at all.

Cricinfo.com : I am cricket fanatic. Like many other Indians, I am crazy about the game. A cricket crazy friend of mine recommended this site to me. No matter which country is playing, I log on to catch the scores; I think they do a good job of showing the live scores. The site is a goldmine of cricketing information as anyone who has logged on to it will accept. It was a trifle slow as a site and the layout was drab. But very recently they have upgraded the site to make it more user-friendly, faster and appealing to the eye. There are a couple of contests on the fantasy cricket lines, but not many exciting prizes though.

Espnstar.com: Now this is also a sports based site. But I never visited this till the game show superselector was launched. The site is slow and even the sports news are updated in a relaxed manner, so this is not a place to look forward to if you are interested in the latest sporting headlines. But then the game “superselector” is an addiction as far as I am concerned. A fantasy cricket game where in you select a team of eleven players for a month and get points for their performance in that month. With some exciting prizes (for Indian Nationals especially) this game show has changed the way I watch cricket, can you believe I wake up early in the morning( 3.30 am) to watch England play New Zealand and cheer every run Andre Adams (who..??) takes!!!!

Yahoo.com: This is my all in one site when it comes to interacting with people on the net. In fact it was the first site I had logged on to make an email ID for myself. The site as most of you know, offers a comprehensive range of facilities like chat (one of the best chat sites that I have been to), groups, briefcase, photos, greetings, homepage (geocities), messenger etc all under one roof. The email might not be the fastest one available on the net. But it is never painfully slow as some other popular email sites especially hotmail.

Raaga.com: I love my music. But my preferences are very much restrictive. I don’t enjoy Rock and heavy metal and stuff like that. I prefer Indian music. This site helps me with my daily dose of Hindi and Tamil music. Though the site also offers Telugu music, I don’t listen to them as often (apologies Sujay). This site is not for those who are interested in downloading music, it’s purely for listening purposes only. It’s faster than Indiafm.com in my opinion.

NDTV.com: There are many great websites dedicated to news. NDTV might not be the biggest player on offer. But I sure prefer this to any other site basically because it’s the most useful India centric news based website in my opinion. Star News is my preferred news channel and hence it’s just natural that their website is my preferred news based site. It’s a trifle slow to upload, but I am usually not in a hurry to read news, I keep this site open while I surf the other sites and just brush through their news updates on and off.

Beerhunter.com: Well this is a site by Michael Jackson, not the MJ of music fame, but for beer lovers this guy is equally indispensable. I was a great fan of his books on alcoholic beverages, which I use as reference material to teach at my college. I found this site once again through google.com. I have been a regular at this site for almost a year now. One could even subscribe to the monthly news letters from here, they are pretty informative. This guy travels all over the world, tasting, rating and reviewing beers. Wow what a way to earn a living..!!!!

Bawarchi.com: Huh…. I love my food and I am at loath to admit it. I was introduced to this site by a colleague of mine. This is one site that I surf regularly to pick up some interesting recipes; also some cooking tips. What started of as a small time Indian cookery portal is now, one of the comprehensive portals on that subject. The site’s health tips, special diet section for diabetics (I am not one though), glossary etc are excellent features. You can interact with the expert with your queries and suggestions. The only competing site in my opinion is khanakhazana.com but then I prefer bawarchi.com for its better features and bigger database.

Mouthshut.com: I hate this site. It made me an addict. I just won’t write anything more than that.

“AIDS LETS NOT CONDEMN IT………. LETS CONDOM IT”